Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Invalid Fruit Tart
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Peel the apples and slice them.
Stew the sliced apples with enough sugar to sweeten, then pour them into a pie dish once cooked.
Make the custard layer
Slice the sponge cakes and place them over the apples.
Boil the milk.
Pour the boiled milk over the egg yolks, adding a little sugar.
Pour the milk mixture over the sponge cakes and apples.
Place the tart in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 minutes.
Top and finish
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Sweeten the beaten egg whites with 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Pile the sweetened beaten egg whites on top of the tart.
Return the tart to the oven for a few minutes to harden and brown slightly.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the fruit base and bulk of the filling, softening and sweetening when stewed.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid custard that moistens the sponge and sets in the oven.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard while whites whipped into a foam form the browning topping.
- Sponge cakes
- Soak up the milk custard and hold structure between the apples and the topping.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to a stiff froth. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks; under-whipped or greasy whites will collapse and weep rather than forming a light, browning meringue on the tart.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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